Archive for November, 2009

Well as there were so many opportunities to win the competition this week, I suppose I’d better announce a winner!

Not only could you simply re-tweet @sirjogalot, but many of you were given an extra shot at getting the answer to the question right! So how many miles is a marathon race? Well thanks to my typo, it was either B, 26.2 miles or C, 26.2 miles.

This week’s winner is Daniel Lambert from Watford. Congratulations Daniel. You win a load of running goodies (pictured here) including a Reebok Running Pack.

Be honest, how many of you have thought about entering a marathon, confident in your mind that it doesn’t look that hard? If a 101 year-old plumber can trot around drinking beer and still finish, then what’s stopping you, right?

Cut to two months later. You have your place, you’ve got your new trainers and you’re about to go on your first long-distance run. Off you go…

3 hours later, you stumble home; pale, knackered, nipples bleeding and chafing so bad that you look like you’ve won first place in a John Wayne look-a-like competition. Slumped on your sofa you think to yourself, what went wrong?

A common mistake in training for a long-distance run is starting too strong too soon. Prepare well and you should have no trouble achieving your goals.

A preview…

Our friends over at ASICS have kindly offered us the chance to visit their flagship store in London. One of the earliest blog posts at Sir Jog A Lot was a post on choosing the right trainers. For those attempting long distances, picking the right trainers can only really be done when you know what style runner you are.

To accurately judge your running gait, ASICS can provide a full 3D foot scan. Jenny Meadows, bronze medal winner at the World Championships in Berlin, took a trip to the store to do just that.

Every October since 1992, the city of Lausanne, Switzerland plays host to the Lausanne Marathon. With over 10,000 participants, and a number of different races on the day, the event is set over one of the most stunning backdrops in the world, Lake Geneva and the Swiss Alps.

There are 9 different events to choose from on the day. Obviously the main event is a full marathon, but also available to participate in is a quarter marathon, 10km walk, ‘mini’ races for children and a handcyles half marathon. However, the most popular distance (with over 3000 more entrants than the full marathon) is the half marathon.

The starting point is a 20 minute train journey away from the finish line, in La Tour-de-Peilz, a cool 13.1 miles away. Handily, your running number is your train fare, but the train runs almost side-by-side with the running route, painfully showing you just how far you have to run to reach the finish line back in Lausanne.